Stockholm Croatian Catholic Mission head Stjepan Biletić was awarded the Order of the Croatian Morning Star with the image of Katarina Zrinski, Federation of Croatian Associations in Sweden president Diana Vukušić received the Order of the Croatian Interlace, while the Matija Gubec Croatian Culture Society of Stockholm was presented with a Charter of the Republic of Croatia.
Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović kicked off her official visit to the Kingdom of Sweden by meeting with people from the Croatian emigrant community in Stockholm on the 20th of March. An “aging and dying” Croatia needs you, she told them. She said it was up to the authorities in Zagreb to secure their return to the homeland and the same level of quality of life they enjoy in this wealthy Scandinavian land.
“Your expectations are great, in the sense of building bilateral relations, opportunities for collaboration with Croatia, and I hope, for many of you, in the sense of a perspective return to Croatia,” the president said. “It is up to us to secure your repatriation, your integration into life in the homeland and the kind of fulfilment you have here in Sweden,” Grabar-Kitarović said.
For particular merit in his many years of social, humanitarian and charitable work and the promotion of moral values in society President Grabar-Kitarović presented the Order of the Croatian Morning Star (Red Danice hrvatske) with the image of Katarina Zrinski to Stjepan Biletić, a priest who has led the Croatian Catholic Mission in Stockholm for the past forty years. The president also presented the Matija Gubec Croatian Culture Society of Stockholm with the Charter of the Republic of Croatia for particular merit in promoting Croatian heritage, language, culture and sports and the preservation of the Croatian identity in the Kingdom of Sweden.
(predsjednica.hr)
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